In The Story of the North East Garden written by Liang in Qing Dynasty, it tells the story that Tao Shu, a famous minister in Qing Dynasty, refused to marry him because his daughter failed the list, and married a handmaid as his daughter. So, is this story true? (Statue of Tao Shu) Let's see what happened first. Tao Shu is from Anhua, Hunan. His father, Tao Biquan, was a brilliant poet and scholar, who was very famous at that time. However, he repeatedly failed in the imperial examinations. Plus, he likes collecting books and doesn't know how to manage, and his life is getting worse. Tao Shu was very poor when he was born. Influenced by Tao Biquan, Tao Shu studied hard since childhood and was very talented, so he accumulated a lot of knowledge at a young age. Tao Biquan attached great importance to Uncle Tao and asked the matchmaker to make an appointment for him early. The woman surnamed Huang is rich and handsome. Huangfu is willing to marry his daughter to Tao Shu because he has a crush on Tao Shu's talent and thinks he will be an official in the future. So he and Tao Biquan agreed to set the wedding date after the provincial examination. Unexpectedly, Tao Shu fell into Sun Shan. Huangfu worried that Tao Shu would be like Tao Biquan. Even if he is talented, he can only be a poor scholar all his life. Just then, a rich man named Qian in the city found Huangfu, with the emphasis on gold. It turned out that shortly after he lost his wife, he heard that Huang was beautiful and wanted to marry her as his second wife. Father Huang hesitated, so he told Huang and let her make her own decision. Huang didn't want to marry Tao Shu originally, but he naturally wanted to after hearing about it. However, the wedding day is coming. If your marriage breaks up suddenly, your reputation will be damaged. He may even go to court, which makes Huang Fu very upset. Huang thought, Tao Shu has never seen her. Why not let her maid marry her? Huang's father thought there was some truth, so on the wedding day, he pretended to be Huang's handmaid who grew up with Huang and married Tao Shu. After marriage, on the one hand, the maid kept the secret strictly, on the other hand, she took on the housework, so that Tao Shu could concentrate on the exam. With the encouragement of her handmaid, Tao Shu worked very hard, studied harder and passed the imperial examination. At the age of 23, he finally realized his dream and became the first scholar in Anhua County. Subsequently, Tao Shu became an official. During his decades of political career, Tao Shu has made great contributions to the reform of official administration. At the same time, he is diligent and loves the people, and has made outstanding achievements in local affairs, so he has repeatedly taken on heavy responsibilities. After Daoguang succeeded to the throne, he was still regarded as an important minister of the first emperor. Soon he was promoted to the governor of Anhui and later transferred to the governor of Jiangsu. In the ten years of Daoguang, due to his outstanding achievements, Daoguang promoted him to the important position of Governor of Liangjiang and made him the Prince of Shaobao. The wife is more expensive than the husband, and the maid who pretended to be Huang and married Tao Shu was also a dignitary, and was named a first-class maid by the court. Although your handmaid is a servant girl, she was nervous after all, so she finally told Tao Shu the truth. Tao Shu was very surprised when he learned that. But, I think, my maid has been with him for many years. If it weren't for her encouragement, how could I be where I am today? So he forgave her for being an impostor and treated her as usual. Later, after Tao Biquan died of illness, Tao Shu returned to his hometown and worried about it. A few years later, I learned that Huang married a rich man named Qian. The rich man named Qian bullied others and seized other people's fields, which led to a fight and was killed by the other side in the melee. After the rich man's money was killed, his people bullied Huang in every way to deprive him of his property, and finally drove her out of the house. When Tao Shu heard this, he sighed and sent Huang five hundred taels of gold to subsidize his family. Huang, holding gold, thought that his fate had changed dramatically at the first moment, and he couldn't help but regret it and cried until midnight. The next day, Huang got up and found that the gold on the pillow was gone. He was angry and annoyed at once. Finally, he was sad and desperate and hanged himself. Of course, this story only appears in the records of Beidong Garden, but it is not recorded in the official history. Tao Shu in the official history married a wife named Huang. In other words, the original wife is Huang's daughter, and there is no such thing as switching. Whether this matter is true or not now seems to be no problem. However, judging from the tonality of "a good thing is right and a bad thing is right" recorded in the annals of North East Garden, it is obviously more likely that Huang will remarry the surname of "Qian". Probably the kind of article attached by the literati, and finally included in Liang's transcript. What's more, the woman is also a native of Taoists, and getting married is also "earth-shattering". If the woman is married, how could the Taos not know? So the content doesn't seem credible. (Refer to historical materials: The Original Record of North East)